My PM1440 arrived already bolted to the stand. We just slid a straight pick thru the holes and used a pair of jacks to lift up one end and then the other.

Im not so lucky and im not sure and engine hoist would crank this up.

We weren't so smart when it arrived. We used an engine hoist and the bucket on my tractor to lift it off the pallet. Engine hoist on the heavy end and and front loader on the light end. One caveat. Our pallet was much larger than the lathe so we couldn't get the legs around it to support it properly. Instead I parked the back wheel of my truck on one back support leg of the engine hoist so it wouldn't tip forward. Fortunately like I said mine arrived bolted to the stand, and the stand has holes through it just for running a piece of bar for lifting. When I moved it out of the way to build the new machine room we just used a farm jack and a tall screw jack (beam jack?) the same height as my farm jack to lift one end and then the other onto furniture movers where it sat for almost two months until we rolled it into the new machine room and lowered it the same way.

One thing that will help with balance, although you probably already know this, is to lock your tail stock on the very end of the ways, and then run your carriage all the way up against the tail stock. The head stock end will still be a lot heavier, but it will help. Also remember that its top heavy and will twist around on you if you try to do something like a simple heavy rope sling.

I hope your Bolton is as good of a machine as my PM1440 has turned out to be. I had to do NOTHING to the PM1440 to fix it. I set it on the ground and leveled it. That's it. My dad was over when I was doing some test cuts, and it turned from doing test cuts to a lesson in basic turning for my dad. A decent middle/heavy weight machine is such a joy to work with that I find myself making parts I could buy for pennies just because I can. When the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. Well I kinda feel that way about my lathe. I really hope yours turns out like that after you get it onto the stand and get it leveled.

P.S. I was freaked about leveling until I watched a video of a guy doing with it a beam and a plumb-bob. Its a little tedious, but dead nuts easy if you take your time. When I realized why you have to level it and that you only have to level one end relative to the other it just clicked for me.

Bob, I have the same lathe, PM1440 and so far really enjoying it. Mine had too much run out with 3-4 tho over 5 inches but we got that adjusted to half a tho over 5 inches - thanks to Doug. I think a good machine for the money.